USPTO

  • The National Academy of Public Administration concludes that time-and-attendance fraud is neither widespread nor unique to teleworkers at the Patent and Trademark Office.

    July 31, 2015
  • Your agency needs to clarify what it expects from employees who telework. That's according to the Patent Office Professional Association. Their president says the recent telework controversy at the Patent and Trademark Office exposes problems with how agencies manage employees working outside the office. Bob Tobias is director of Key Executive Leadership Programs at American University. He explained what he sees behind the controversy on In Depth with Francis Rose.

    August 20, 2014
  • The telework controversy at the Patent and Trademark Office might not even be a telework problem to begin with. Poor management and misinformation might have caused it. That's according to Robert Budens, president of the Patent Office Professional Association. He explained his take on the issue on In Depth with Francis Rose.

    August 19, 2014
  • An executive in the Patent and Trademark Office was found to have violated several federal laws when she used her position to get a relative's boyfriend a job in her agency. The inspector general of the Commerce Department investigated the matter after getting a tip from a whistleblower.

    July 14, 2014
  • Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking member of the Finance Committee, is calling on President Barack Obama to nominate a permanent director for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The top spot at the patent agency has remained vacant since former director David Kappos departed the agency in February 2013. In a letter to President Barack Obama and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Hatch said the vacancy "hampers the agency's ability to influence policy and make long-term plans."

    June 03, 2014
  • Fred Steckler, the CAO at the US. Patent and Trademark Office, discusses his agency's number one ranking in the latest Best Places to Work in Government survey, and Deloitte's David Dye and Katherine Ryan talk about employee management and how to engage the workforce. March 21, 2014

    March 21, 2014
  • Federal CTO Todd Park and other White House officials unveiled a new set of initiatives Thursday designed to help businesses and consumers avoid unnecessary and costly patent litigation.

    February 21, 2014
  • House members with constituents impacted by budget cuts to the Patent and Trademark Office and Department of Defense are taking steps to ease the effect of sequestration and furloughs.

    July 08, 2013
  • USPTO director David Kappos says software is every bit as entitled to patent protection as hardware innovations. Critics of the agency should give recent reforms a chance to work, he told a think tank audience Tuesday.

    November 21, 2012
  • While some federal agencies in Washington, D.C., struggled to get their work done on Monday due to power outages caused by a recent storm, thousands of Patent and Trademark Office employees worked remotely as part of the agency's successful teleworking plan.

    July 04, 2012
  • On the In Depth show blog, you can listen to the interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day and links to additional resources.

    July 04, 2012
  • The Office of Personnel Management is finalizing changes to the federal snow policy. Director John Berry won\'t share details yet, but he said telework shows the resiliency of government during bad weather.

    October 21, 2011
  • While agencies and employees are reaping the benefits of telework, many frontline supervisors remain reluctant. They have to learn to manage the work, not the workers, experts say.

    October 19, 2011
  • Robert Stoll, the commissioner for patents at PTO joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris to outline the new law and how it affects PTO.

    September 26, 2011